The 'Automotive Environmental' Thread - Electric Cars/Fuel Quality/Alternative Fuel

[Citroënbender]

Thanks for that.

I had to read up on the IFo; it's seemingly well-accredited. The conclusion (favouring methane) is interesting and certainly clears the way for lots of jokes.

[Junkyard-Dog]

15,000kms a year isn't much. I easily cover that many kms in 3 months...

[xr8territory]

Electrification of vehicles is inevitable. There will always be a need for petrol engines, mostly sentimental and historical vehicles, but electric/battery will become the norm. One of the biggest stumbling blocks will be households adopting solar in a complete manner. When households in suburbia can go 'off grid' the uptake of electric vehicles will boom.
Most on this webpage are here because of our passion for cars, mostly Ford, but in the near future we will view vehicles as just another battery.

[au2000]

Victoria still cannot promise no power shortages this summer already

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/v...12-p51wzn.html

Government has to get these issues sorted before everyone can seriously consider regular use of electric vehicles.

[au2000]

Victoria still cannot promise no power shortages this summer already

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/v...12-p51wzn.html

Government has to get these issues sorted before everyone can seriously consider regular use of electric vehicles.

[xxx000]

Originally Posted by au2000

Victoria still cannot promise no power shortages this summer already

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/v...12-p51wzn.html

Government has to get these issues sorted before everyone can seriously consider regular use of electric vehicles.

With technology moving as fast as it is I expect homes will produce most if not all of their power and store it onsite or feed it back into the grid.
Solar windows, roofing etc, high capacity batteries, the future is amazing and we'll be less and less reliant on the grid. Same with water and wastewater

[roKWiz]

I think I will stick to running my trucks on bio diesel thanks.

[ivorya]

Originally Posted by au2000

Victoria still cannot promise no power shortages this summer already

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/v...12-p51wzn.html

Government has to get these issues sorted before everyone can seriously consider regular use of electric vehicles.

Don't believe it until it happens, slow news day. Uptake of panels are going through the roof taking massive load off, especially during summer.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by ivorya

Don't believe it until it happens, slow news day. Uptake of panels are going through the roof taking massive load off, especially during summer.

Solar panels are good and they've saved me quite a bit, however the the problem with them is the hotter it gets the less efficient they are.

[ivorya]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

Solar panels are good and they've saved me quite a bit, however the the problem with them is the hotter it gets the less efficient they are.

Yes, true, but drop off isn't that bad. Still producing 75-90% theoretical outputs at those high temps, which is still enough to run your appliances and help the grid.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by ivorya

Yes, true, but drop off isn't that bad. Still producing 75-90% theoretical outputs at those high temps, which is still enough to run your appliances and help the grid.

Try a drop of 10 to 25%, and at +40c outside temp they don't make much power, trust me

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Originally Posted by au2000

Victoria still cannot promise no power shortages this summer already

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/v...12-p51wzn.html

Government has to get these issues sorted before everyone can seriously consider regular use of electric vehicles.

Classic case of 'don't believe everything you read. There's some factual error sin that article. For a start, the unit that is out of service has a nominal output of 560MW not 550MW. Not a big difference in numbers but could be significant depending on scenarios that play out over summer.

Also, it is not normally the one day of hot weather that causes strain to the grid. It is the two, three or more consecutive days over 40°C that starts to drain the generating capacity. Whilst it is possible, I don't think it is likely we'll experience that in early December.

Another thing that doesn't read right to me is the statement that the generation struggled to meet demand last summer because of planned outages. I know that in the coal fired space at least, we never plan for an outage during the peak (summer and winter) periods. All outages are planned over the shoulder periods. Why would anyone plan to have a unit off at a time when you make the most income? (Unless you were trying to manipulate the market, but a stunt like that would be too obvious).

And the statement about transitioning to renewables to overcome this situation is just political talk. There's no point in having renewables available if they can't operate because there's no wind, or the sun is not shining or....

My prediction is that the outage will have little to no impact over the summer period.

[Crazy Dazz]

Originally Posted by xr8territory

Electrification of vehicles is inevitable.

What does that even mean???

We already have electric vehicles!

The percentage will change, just like the adoption of any new technology, but in fact it will be far slower than most.
Its already taken far longer than the fan-boys predicted.

And yes, there will always be the pin-head brigade, ****ing & moaning that we're murdering dolphins, and that the guvment must ban motor-cars and flushing toilets, but ultimately it will come down to cost.

The big question is how quickly we run short of oil and need to switch to synthetic fuels.

[hayseed]

Originally Posted by Crazy Dazz

The big question is how quickly we run short of oil

Won't happen in My Lifetime... IMHO..